The Witness Stones Project today announced a new affiliation with the Leffingwell House Museum and the Norwich Free Academy. Students at the coeducational independent school will be using the Project’s curriculum and landscape markers to expand their understanding of the history of slavery in colonial Connecticut.
Students will examine primary source documents, such property, church, and vital records; wills and probate inventories; and census data, in order to understand the reality of slavery and to restore the memory of those individuals who were enslaved. They will learn how to document and describe the dehumanization and paternalism of slavery; the economic and legal framework that supported slavery; and, the agency, resistance, and contributions of the enslaved to our local and national history. Finally, these students will be inviting their communities to witness as they install memorial stones for individuals who were enslaved in their town.
The Leffingwell House Museum’s mission is the education and promotion of the history of Norwich.
The Norwich Free Academy is committed to providing a safe, nurturing and rigorous academic environment in which all students gain the knowledge and develop the skills to become resourceful members of their local, national, and world communities.
